Mobile Marketing for restaurants? Is it effective to getting online orders? How does it work? How much should one spend to get genuine leads? And most importantly, what’s the ROI?

So many questions, and so much more to explore, but only a few operators are talking about it. Why so?

What is mobile marketing? Any promotional activity that you do to target your customers on their smartphones, tablets, and/or other mobile devices falls under the umbrella of mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing spans SMS, social media, search ads, emails, and other platforms that can be used to communicate with people about discounts, special promotions, new launches, delivery service update and so on.

But why mobile marketing when the same can be done with traditional digital marketing? Since the customers have started to shift their attention (and dollars) to mobile, it has become a necessity for restaurants to create omnichannel engagement. As technology becomes more fragmented, the right way to earn and maintain the attention of customers is making the content and offerings highly personalized.

In this article, we’re going to help you discover how you can use mobile marketing to your advantage.

A Thriving Mobile App

While this might seem like a no-brainer, you’d be astonished at the number of restaurants that still don’t have a responsive and well-designed mobile app. It’s 2021, a mobile app that customers can use effortlessly is absolutely essential for your business.

Stick to minimal design, pleasant color schemes, and ensure that the app is easy to navigate. Use push notifications in a way that intrigues customers instead of flooding their phone with irrelevant popups. Highlight special deals and combos that you offer and make sure customers can provide feedback. A well-executed app can attract customers in no time.

Scaling Up Convenience with Mobile Reservation

If you want to increase online sales, your customers need to remain content with the service you provide. The best way to enhance customer experience is to provide maximum convenience. This means short wait times, a user-friendly app, quick customer support…but there’s more. Offer online waitlisting to your customers. Using your mobile app, you can allow customers to make reservations online, browse through the menu, and place orders well before they enter the restaurant. It takes away the hassle of in-person reservations and long queues, which leads to customers coming back for more.

Mobile-Optimised Promotions

Mobile marketing for restaurants or any other brand, for that matter, is not much different than targeting customers on other devices. The only consideration is to ensure that when you create promotions should be optimised for mobile viewing and target mobile users in the selected geography. A case study by Medialets shows higher CTRs on smartphones (0.59%) compared to desktops (0.23%). Ads on mobile apps performed twice as well as those on mobile websites.

what are my options for advertising to mobile audience?

Email marketing: Did you know 69% users delete emailers that are not optimized for mobile viewing. So if the image or text sent in a newsletter fails to load or doesn’t fit the screen, the user is going to delete the mail without taking any action. So make sure that all newsletters are designed keeping in mind different screen sizes.

Social Media Advetising: Facebook and Instagram have clearly mentioned ad posts specifications that when followed right can help you garner better ROI for your business. You can read the updated specifications here.

Mobile optimized landing pages: Employing Google ad Strategies would not help if the landing page is not optimized for mobile. If your Google ad optimized score is 95%, but the click-through goes to a landing page that isn’t optimized for mobile, the visitor will likely become frustrated and bounce away.

Online Listings Are Crucial Too

Mobile users often search for restaurants online, primarily on Google. If you want to capture the search engine traffic, you must get your restaurant on the local map. You can do it by signing up for free with Google My Business, making it easy for both mobile, as well as desktop users to locate your restaurant.

Apart from this, listing your business online ensures that customers can find your restaurant with ease. Make sure your restaurant has listings on platforms such as Google My Business, LinkedIn Company Directory, Facebook, Apple Maps, and a ton of other similar websites. This one simple step can help enormously in increasing your visibility and subsequently drawing in more customers.

SMS Marketing for the Win

How many times do you open your phone screen, to just check if there’s any message or call that you missed. Study says, once every hour. That’s exactly the point of spending your time and effort in mobile marketing - customers are checking their phone constantly, and a quick reminder just before lunch hours or dinner time can diver their attention to their brand. What more? With the help of SMS marketing, you can also foster a more personal connection with your existing customer by sending out special deals, personal recommendations and perhaps, a gift card on their birthday or special occasions.

Gain knowledge of the best tools to get your messaging to your customer fast, and go over the cardinal rules for an effective campaign.

Can’t do Without Online Ordering in 2021

The importance of online ordering has skyrocketed since the pandemic outbreak. More than 65% Americans prefer to order-in instead of going out for a meal with family and friends. Read here how the consumer dynamics has changed in the past year and what restaurants can do to capture this new demand. Online Ordering has become a necessity part of all businesses in today’s world. Any restaurant that doesn't offer online ordering facility to their customers is losing a ton of orders every day, putting their future in jeopardy.

In order to thrive in the new world, partner with an online ordering system that provides mobile optimised ordering experience, allowing customers to order food online on the go.  

Start using QR Codes‍

Take your restaurant mobile marketing game to the next level with QR codes. These are becoming common in various industries, and since the pandemic have gained a great recognition in the restaurant industry. QR simply means “quick response.” The codes are designed to store data that can be digitally transmitted to another device, making them ideal for mobile device users. You can place these QR codes on their website, social media accounts and even on the ads for customers to start placing orders from anywhere, anytime

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Keeping Up with Mobile Payments

Smartphones have led to a dramatic increase in the need for mobile wallets, internet banking, and other convenient methods of making payments online. If a customer is on the verge of placing an order only to find out his preferred mode of payment isn’t an option, he might abandon the idea of ordering at all. So, go out of your way to offer every mobile payment under the sun to your customers.

Uplifting Reviews

The chances of a millennial walking into your restaurant without reading reviews and checking ratings online are pretty slim. Encourage diners as well people who place orders online to leave reviews for your restaurant. To make ir easier of them, send out a push notification, an SMS, or simply provide a QR code that they can click on to access the review page. This strategy will ensure maximum return with limited efforts.

Mobile marketing is a powerful tool in the F&B industry. By making changes gradually and boosting your online presence, your online sales can grow by leaps and bounds.